


Unto the Shores of Acheron

by FistsForHire



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, 青鳥の虛像 Fullmetal Alchemist | Fullmetal Alchemist: Bluebird's Illusion
Genre: 2003 anime verse, Al has to choose, Drama and Angst, Failed resurrection, General angst over the unfairness of Life, Hell hath no fury like a Homunculous scorned, Homunculous!Ed, Murderous Intentions, No one's going to come out of this happy, Return from the other side of the Gate, Two Eds, What really constitutes a soul?, Who deserves to die?, Who deserves to live?, angry Homunculous, there can only be one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26484955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FistsForHire/pseuds/FistsForHire
Summary: Everyone thought Edward was dead. But when someone tries to resurrect him, no one's prepared to deal with the soulless lookalike that's created instead, or it's hurt and anger when his original half unexpectedly returns from the other side of the Gate.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 22





	1. Those We Forget

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings! I originally wrote this story years ago but wanted to cross-post it here on AOO now kind of as an archival piece. This story has always been one of my favorite angsty pieces and I wanted to add it to my others on this site. I guess I finally got around to it after rewatching FMA on Netflix. What a trip down memory lane... 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this story!

**Chapter One: Those We Forget**

"35 liters water…'

"7.08 liters carbon…'

"645 milliliters calcium…'

"780 grams phosphorous…'

"140 grams potassium…'

"140 grams sulfur…'

"100 grams sodium…'

"95 grams chlorine…'

"Magnesium, iron, fluorine, ammonium, iodine, silicon, zinc… I hope I don't forget anything…'

"There. Done. Don't worry, dear. It won't be much longer. We're almost ready to bring him back. And when we do we'll make him fix you.'

"There, there, now… No need to worry. We just need one more ingredient. It won't do to bring him back without any memories. Sh, dear… Don't worry. We just need to find Alphonse now. He's the only missing thing.'

"Just a little longer until we find Alphonse Elric, and then everything will be alright…"

* * *

Colonel Roy Mustang listlessly stared at the stack of papers sitting on the corner of his desk with his one good eye. It never seemed to end. Despite Amestris being turned over to parliament rule, the flood of bureaucratic paperwork seemed to follow him no matter who was running the country.

Roy heaved a heavy sigh as he shuffled through page after page of trivial inventories, ledgers, and reports. The words held absolutely no meaning to him as he scanned the pages. It wasn't until he realized he'd just read the same line about a toilet paper shortage on the Northern front seven times that Mustang finally gave a disgusted sigh and sent the report sailing back onto the desk with a snap of the wrist.

 _Where did everything go so wrong?_ he wondered as he wearily massaged the pinch of skin between his eyes. Three years ago everything had seemed so certain. Back then, it had seemed almost assured he would eventually rise to Fuhrer and, under his rule, finally bring peace to Amestris.

But before that could happen, everything had gone so horribly wrong.

His best friend, Maes, had been murdered. The Fuhrer had been exposed as a Homunculus. A government conspiracy had been discovered. And the military was found to be nothing more than the puppet entity of a group of soulless beings hell-bent on bringing death and destruction onto all human kind in their never ending quest to create the Philosopher's Stone.

Roy remembered his last encounter with the All-Seeing Homunculus, King Bradley, too well. He occasionally still had nightmares about it. He probably would have died that night if it hadn't been for the unwitting intervention of the Fuhrer's son.

He'd managed to survive and defeat the one-eyed Homunculus, but only to find his world completely torn apart the next day.

With the mysterious "disappearance" of King Bradley, it was decided there was no longer any need for a military-run government. In the course of only several hours, Mustang had found the position he'd spent so many years toiling to obtain suddenly gone.

But even more devastatingly of a loss than the title of Fuhrer was the apparent death of the foul-mouthed, height-challenged, child prodigy, Edward Elric.

Even now almost three years after his disappearance Roy still felt a sharp pang of loss somewhere deep inside his chest for the missing alchemist.

The boy had been a handful. A true challenge at times! But somehow over the course of their acquaintance he'd come to take a shine to him. Maybe it was because Ed had reminded him so much of himself at that age. Or maybe it was because the boy had been the only one to ever talk back to him like he couldn't care less whether he was a military colonel or Fuhrer of all of Amestris. Whatever the case, Roy had found himself taking more and more of a personal interest in the Elric brothers as the years wore on.

Except there no longer was any Elric _brothers_. There was only the youngest one, Alphonse, left. For all anyone knew, Edward had disappeared in a cloud of smoke the night he gave himself in exchange for his brother's body. No one had seen or heard anything from him since. It was like he'd just disappeared off the face of the earth.

Roy solemnly stared at the scattered sheaves of paper littering his desk. He missed the foul-mouthed prodigy. He was man enough to admit it (even if it was only to himself in the privacy of his own office). Fullmetal had always had a way of making work more interesting. From his height-related tirades to the way he'd stomp around the office whenever he had to give a report, he'd always given Roy a reason to look forward to their meetings.

But now he was gone - probably dead. And because of him.

He knew he was being irrational - that nothing he did was directly responsible for the boy's disappearance. But still, somewhere deep inside, he wondered if there wasn't something else he could have done to save the teenage prodigy.

A sudden knock at his door startled the colonel out of his thoughts.

"Yes?" he called.

The door opened to reveal Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye. "A message just came for you from the front reception desk, colonel," she said, forgoing any pleasantries. "There's someone there that wants to see you."

"Who is it?"

"The front desk didn't say. But whoever it is isn't military; they won't let them up without your consent."

"Alright," Roy sighed, getting up. "I'll go see who it is. I need to stretch my legs anyway."

Hawkeye glanced at the stack of papers covering the colonel's desk. "Your paperwork still needs to be done by the end of the day, Sir," she reminded him. "You've fallen behind the last few day. I'd hate to have to remind you to do it again."

Mustang involuntarily flinched at the unspoken threat. The female sharpshooter had on more than one occasion been known to draw her weapon on anyone she caught slacking off - himself included. He'd been startled out of enough afternoon naps to find himself staring down the barrel of a polished .45 to know that Hawkeye never made an idle threat.

"I'll be sure to get right on it, Lieutenant," he said, and moved quickly for the door. Although Riza was a dedicated soldier and loyal friend (perhaps something even more someday…), there was no denying the woman could be down right scary at times. Even Mustang, commanding officer and revered Flame Alchemist, knew when to obediently click his heels together and shout, "Yes, Ma'am!" than risk incurring the wrath of the female sharpshooter.

Roy gave his men a customary nod as he strode out his private office and through the door. Falman, Breda, Fuery, and Havoc all looked up and saluted him as he passed. Despite losing all hope of ever becoming Fuhrer, Roy took solace in the fact he still had his loyal subordinates and friends. They made his suddenly meaningless career a little bit more bearable.

If only that group of loyal subordinates wasn't missing its youngest members, Roy thought with a heart-sinking pang of guilt.

Roy forced himself to ignore that last thought. It did no good agonizing over the past, he tried to remind himself.

He quickly navigated his way through Central Headquarters. He was curious to see who wanted to see him but wasn't military personnel to automatically be given clearance to go to his office.

As he turned down the last hallway and came within view of the reception desk, Roy finally caught sight of his mysterious visitor - and felt the air leave his lungs like he'd just taken a punch to the gut by Major Armstrong. His footsteps faltered to a halt.

 _No. It can't be…_ Roy thought, staring in disbelief.

The person's back was to Roy, his face hidden from view, but there was no way to hide his visitor's youth. It was a boy, no older than his early teens. Long blonde hair - tied back in a ponytail by a piece of cloth - hung down the boy's back. He was wearing a long red coat, embossed with the design of a winged serpent wrapped around an arrow-pointed cross. It was like the ghost of some long-forgotten memory suddenly come to life.

 _No_ … Roy thought, a wild, almost painful hope rising inside his chest as his feet unconsciously began moving towards the frighteningly familiar figure again. _There's no way it can be him… He's dead. No one's seen him in three years. There's no way it can possibly be him._

But what if there was?

Mustang's pace quickened, almost breaking into a jog. Could it be? Could it really be him? Could it really be-

"Fullmetal?"

The name burst from his lips almost as a shout.

The person looked up, finally turning to face him.

Roy felt the tentative seed of hope that had begun to grow shatter like a piece of glass somewhere deep inside him.

"Um… Colonel Mustang?" the boy nervously greeted him. "My name's Alphonse Elric. I believe you used to know my brother. I was wondering if I could talk to you about him for awhile. I promise I won't take up much of your time."

Roy stared at the boy, a devastating sense of loss washing over him.

This wasn't Fullmetal, he realized with a sickening crash of reality. It was Alphonse Elric... Edward's younger brother. That would explain the unsettling similarities between this boy and the ghost of his memories.

No longer blinded by delirious hope, Roy was finally able to see the boy for who he really was. Despite their initial similarities, Roy now saw several striking differences between Al and the one he wanted him to be.

For one thing, although blond, Al did not have the same color hair as his older counterpart. While Ed's hair had always reminded Roy of sun-bleached straw, Al's was more a dishwater blond. His eyes were also greyish blue, not gold like the ones that used to stare back at him in defiant challenge. This boy's face was rounder, more full of innocence; while at this age Ed had already taken on the visage of someone who'd experienced loss and come to understand the crueler ways of the world. Al's stance was also different from Fullmetal's: more unassuming and demure - just like how Roy always imagined he'd carry himself when he'd been an empty suit of armor. Ed had always stormed around like a loaded gun - lethal and in danger of going off at any moment.

It was disconcerting and unexplainably heartbreaking, Roy realized, to be faced with this familiar yet alien presence. It was as if some vindictive higher power had decided to punish him for his failure to protect the foul-mouthed alchemist and sent this disturbing look-alike to taunt him.

"Sir?" Al's voice startled Mustang back to the present. The boy was looking distinctly uncomfortable. "You are Colonel Mustang, aren't you?"

The Flame Alchemist realized he was staring. "Of course it is, Al. Don't you remember me?"

The boy sheepishly looked down at his feet. "I'm sorry, Sir, but I don't. I can't seem to remember anything that happened after Brother and I tried to bring our mother back, or what happened while my soul was sealed in that suit of armor."

Roy stared at the boy, feeling as if the floor had suddenly disappeared out from under him. "You don't remember _anything_?"

Al miserably shook his head.

"We were hoping you might be able to help jog some of his memories."

Roy's head shot up in surprise, only now realizing there were others there besides Ed's brother. The first one to arrest Roy's attention was the towering figure of a black-bearded man. Roy now realized why the front desk officer hadn't given them clearance into Headquarters. The man looked like he could take on major Armstrong in a body-building contest and possibly win. The second was a woman; dark-haired, beautiful, and tall. She had a tattoo of the same symbol the Elric brothers' wore on their coats tattooed over her heart. It took a moment for Roy's startled mind to finally process that it'd been this woman that had spoke.

"I'm sorry, do I know-?"

"I'm sorry, colonel," Al intercepted. "This is Brother's and my alchemy teacher."

The woman gave Mustang a curt nod, a faint scowl etched across her face. "Izumi Curtis. This is my husband, Sig."

The man behind her grunted in response, as if that was the closest he ever came to actually saying hello.

Roy weakly nodded. This was Ed and Al's first alchemy teacher? He didn't know why, but there was something about this woman that instantly made him wary - like when he hadn't finished a report and knew Hawkeye was waiting on the other side of the door with a loaded pistol.

"You want me to help jog his memory?" Roy slowly repeated, eyeing the young boy hesitantly. "I'm not sure what I can really do to help…"

"We're not asking much," Izumi said, her expression grim. "Just that you talk to him for awhile. You were his brother's commanding officer. Besides Al, you probably saw more of Ed during the four years he spent in the military than anyone else."

Roy stared at the young boy, uncomfortably aware of the hopeful, pleading look in Al's eyes - as if he was his last hope of ever recapturing some part of his missing brother.

Mustang gave a weary sigh. How could he say no? Al may not remember him or even know what kind of role Roy had played in his older brother's disappearance, but he felt he owed it the boy to talk about his brother. After all, it was the least he could do to try and make up in some small way not being able to be there to save the older Elric brother's life.

"Let's go to my office," he murmured, turning and motioning Al to follow him. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions."

* * *

Al uncomfortably sat in one of the chairs facing colonel Mustang's desk. Stacks of papers littered the man's desk, it's surface barely even visible under all the clutter. Al wondered how the man got any work done there.

"Would you like anything to drink?" Mustang asked as he took a seat behind the desk. "I can have one of my subordinates get you something."

"No thank you, Sir, I'm fine," Al replied. He honestly had no desire to see any more of his brother's old comrades. 'Uncomfortable' would have been a mild word to describe how he'd felt when he'd first walked through the doors into the colonel's office. It was like the moment the other five soldiers caught sight of him they'd literally froze. He could still feel their eyes boring into him, filled with shock as if they'd just seen a ghost. It wasn't until the colonel finally noticed his men's expressions and properly introduced him as Alphonse Elric that their startled expression began to fade. But even then they'd continued to stare. It'd almost made him wish Izumi hadn't decided to wait downstairs. (She never had liked the military very much…)

Al knew what they must have been thinking before Mustang told them his true identity. He'd seen the flash of disappointment go through their eyes when he'd explained he was Alphonse Elric and not his missing brother. He'd seen the same look on the colonel when he'd run up to him in the hallway. Did he really look that much like his older brother?

He'd then answered the onslaught of questions that had inevitably followed. He was doing fine; no, he didn't remember who any of them were; yes, he'd begun studying alchemy again; and (possibly the most painful of all), no, he had no idea what happened to his brother that night three years ago; that was why he was there…

The colonel was pretending to tidy the chaotic mess of papers on his desk, but Al knew what he was really doing. He was staling.

"So you knew my brother…" he tentatively began, trying to ease into the conversation he knew was going to be as uncomfortable for the colonel as it was going to be for him. Just how did one go about asking what was basically a total stranger to tell him about his older brother, or ask him to help fill him in on the last four years of his life which he'd somehow forgotten? "What can you tell me about him, Sir? Everyone I talk to seems to have their own impression of him."

"What exactly do you want know?" the colonel replied, finally giving up on the mess of paper and leaning back in his chair. "There's quite a lot I can say about Fullmetal."

Al became quiet, his eyes drifting to floor. "Anything…" he murmured, as if ashamed to meet the colonel's gaze. "I can't remember anything about Brother or what happened after I lost my body. It's like he's been erased from my memory. I don't know where we went, what we did, or what kind of person my brother was those four years. Everything I do remember about him feels like it's getting old - like my memories are somehow getting fuzzy around the edges. I'm not sure I even remember what Brother really looked like. I've seen pictures and heard other people's stories of him, but I don't remember anything about him myself. That's why I'm trying to get my own memory back. I don't want to forget my brother…"

Al felt tears prickle the corners of his eyes, but he forced himself to blink them back. He wasn't going to cry in front of the colonel. Not when he wanted and _needed_ to learn so much from the other man. Mustang was one of his last hopes of ever learning about his brother's past.

The colonel didn't immediately answer. He stared at Al with a distant look in his one eye, as if actually looking at something far away that existed only in the farthest reaches of his mind.

Then, as if coming back to himself, Mustang finally spoke. "Edward was, for lack of a better term, a foul-mouthed brat," he said, his voice crisp and flat. But then, his expression softening into one of fond remembrance, "but he was one of the best alchemists and human beings I think I've ever met…"

Al relaxed into his chair, the colonel's word coming faster as he recalled the first day Ed had come into his office to pick up his first assignment and State Alchemist silver watch.

Al felt no memories surface back into being as the colonel continued his account of the famous Fullmetal Alchemist. But somewhere in the back of his mind, he saw the image of his older brother he'd begun to piece together from the stories and pictures of other people become a little bit clearer - like he was somehow closer to one day having his brother back. Even if it was only in his mind.

* * *

It was several hours later before Al finally walked out the doors of Central Headquarters. It now near the middle of the afternoon. A cool breeze whistled across the empty parade grounds as Al walked into the open and lifted his face to the wind. He hadn't expected his meeting with colonel Mustang to go so long.

The smell of rain hung heavy in the air, the sky ominous and grey. Although it'd been overcast all day, storm clouds were now brewing overhead as if Heaven itself was in turmoil and getting ready to unleash its fury. Central, it looked like, was in for a major thunderstorm.

Taking a deep breath of the wet, lightening-laced air Al slowly started down the front steps.

"Well? How'd it go?" a voice called out to him as he reached the bottom.

Izumi was there, her husband standing behind her like a looming titan.

Al gave her a wan smile that didn't quite meet his eyes. "Fine. Colonel Mustang was very helpful and nice to me. But I still don't remember anything."

Izumi's stern features softened, her heart aching at the sight of her student's disappointed face. "It's going to take time, Al," she said, gently leading him away from the military building by the shoulder. "Your memories aren't just going to come back all at once, you know."

"But it's been three years," Al murmured, looking frustrated and vaguely frightened. "What if they never come back? What if I never remember Brother or what happened those four years Brother and I spent looking for the Philosopher's Stone?"

Izumi could only shake her head. "I don't know, Al," she replied. "We can only hope for the best." Sig, as usual, said nothing.

The three silently left the grounds of Central Headquarters and entered the main part of the city. The streets were mostly empty. It seemed most of Central's populace had already begun to move indoors in preparation of the coming storm. The three moved slowly, even though there was no one there to hinder their movement. Al felt sluggish - weighed down as if his meeting with his brother's old commander was some kind of physical weight on his shoulders.

 _Another useless stroll down memory lane_ … he sullenly noted. Or at least it would have been if he had any memories to stroll down.

He wondered just how many people he'd interviewed about his brother like this now. Dozens, at least. Sometimes when he talked to people, instead of trying to jog his amnesic mind or remember forgotten memories, he felt like he was actually trying to make his own memories out of the ones of others - like making some kind of patchy collage.

It was kind of pathetic, really. He couldn't have his own memories so he had to leech off the ones of others. He wondered what his brother would have thought if he knew what he was doing. _Probably would have slapped me upside the head_ , Al thought with a grimace. He _did_ remember his brother's tendency to take his disappointment out like that on others.

Al sighed. Well, he couldn't really say his meeting with Mustang had been useless. The colonel had had some interesting stories about his brother no one else had ever told him. The one about Ed choosing to fight the colonel in a mock combat simulation for his certification review had been rather amusing.

But even then, all the stories he was ever told always boiled back down to just that: stories. The accounts he heard held no tangible meaning to him because he didn't actually remember being there himself. He couldn't remember the way a place had looked or felt. He couldn't remember how his brother had looked or sounded. Oh, he could _imagine_ all those things, but that wasn't the same as actually _remembering_. For all he knew, the stories people told him could have been taken from a book and retold to him as reality. How was he to know? He had nothing to compare them with.

Al's thoughts wandered off, lost in a sea of bitterness and disappointment. Walking in silence, he, Izumi, and their silent counterpart turned down a narrow side street that would lead them back to the hotel they'd taken up rooms in for the night.

The streets were now all but deserted. No one else seemed to be out except for the occasional pedestrian hurrying home to beat the rain. A few raindrops had already begun to fall, like scouts before the onslaught of a major attack. The faint echo of thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance. The air seemed thick, as if the world itself was holding its breath in anticipation of the coming storm.

Al hardly seemed to notice. He was too preoccupied with his own thoughts. He probably would have continued brooding, but just as he and his companions came to the middle of the quiet side street a raspy voice suddenly called out to him, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Alphonse Elric… At last… I was starting to worry I'd never find you…"

Al and his companions froze, looking around the empty street for the voice's owner. As they watched, a tall figure emerged from shadows of a tiny alleyway. The figure was dressed in a long trench coat with a wide-brimmed fedora pulled down over its face. It moved towards them slowly, lumbering in a half-hunched position. Even then it stood over six feet tall. Al felt Izumi tense beside him, unconsciously sinking into a wary fighting stance.

"My, Alphonse, don't you look well…" it said, its raspy voice grating his ears. "You remind me so much of your brother in this body. If only he were here to see it…"

Al stared at the mysterious stranger incredulously. "You knew my brother?"

"Of course I did… That's why I want to bring him back. He's the only one that can help me. But to bring him back I need your help…"

"Bring him back?" Al said, staring at the mysterious figure incredulously. "How? He's dead."

"No… Not if you help me. We can bring him back… But you must come with me…"

"Enough!" Izumi yelled, stepping in between her student and the man. "Alphonse is going nowhere with you. How did you know Edward?"

The man however did not answer. Like an angry predator, the man lunged at them, his arms outstretched towards Al. "The boy is coming with me! I need his help!"

"I said _no_ ," Izumi hissed, and delivered a brutal sidekick to the man's head.

The man staggered backward from the dark-haired alchemy teacher, holding his head. Al was amazed he didn't fall. He hadn't met many people that could take one of his sensei's blows and not be knocked unconscious for a week. The man began to straighten, his fedora slipping off his head and falling to the ground. Both Al and Izumi gasped, staring in horror at the sight they beheld.

A man's face stared back at them, upside-down. Large furry ears framed the thing's misshapen head. Fur covered the rest of what they could see of its abnormal body. It was then that Al noticed the thing's furry hands - like they were actually those of some kind of animal.

"A chimera?" Izumi murmured, gaping at the monstrous thing.

Al felt something tickle the back of his mind, like an itch he couldn't reach. There was something oddly familiar about this thing. But where would he have ever met a chimera before?

"Heh heh…" the chimera chuckled in its raspy voice, rubbing its bruised jaw with one massive paw. "It's going to take more than that to stop me... I need that boy to help me bring his brother back…"

Al stared at the chimera. Why did he feel like he should know who this person was? His voice was unsettling familiar. As if he'd heard it once before…

"Tucker! Shou Tucker!" Al suddenly gasped, startled as the name flew from his lips. He had no idea where that name had come from, or how he'd known it. But somehow he knew that was this person's name - a name that unexplainably conjured up feelings of revulsion and disgust in his heart.

The chimera smiled at him with an unsettling up-side grin. "Very good, Alphonse… Maybe you will be able to help me after all…"

"He's not going anywhere with you," Izumi said, once again stepping in between Tucker and her student. Her voice was dangerous, her stance aggressive. Al couldn't help but think of a mother bear warning another predator to stay away from her cub.

"Forgive me," the chimera rasped, "but the boy _is_ coming with me…" Lunging at Izumi, the chimera spun and caught the alchemy teacher in the chest with his tail which Al had not noticed until then.

The female alchemist was sent flying into a nearby wall. Her body hit the unforgiving stone with a sickening crunch and limply slid to the ground.

"Sensei!" Al yelled. Clapping his hands together, he activated the two alchemy arrays on the palms of his gloves and pressed them onto the ground. Spikes of transmuted concrete shot up out of the ground, almost impaling the lumbering chimera. Tucker was faster, his hunched animal body more agile than anyone would have thought.

Leaping to one side, Tucker dodged the projectiles and lunged at Al again. The boy evaded his grasp but just as he tried to do another transmutation the chimera once again whipped around and lashed out with his tail. Al took the hit hard and was knocked to the ground. Gasping for air, Al lay in a heap. Dark spots danced across his vision.

"Why are you fighting me like this, Alphonse?" he heard the chimera, Tucker, say, coming to stand over him.

Before Al could answer or try to push himself to his feet, another figure lunged at the chimera. His arm pulled back like a huge battering ram, Sig caught the chimera by surprise and slammed him to the ground. Tucker took the hit, but rolled and came back up on his feet.

Pushing himself up onto his knees, Al tried to make his head stop spinning. Izumi, he saw, was also pushing herself up, holding her left side. Clapping her hands together, she pressed them to the wall. A section of the building - like a giant battering ram - shot out and slammed into Tucker. The chimera staggered and fell to one knee.

Unfortunately, the transmutation seemed too much for the injured alchemist because with a violent cough, a gush of blood erupted from Izumi's mouth. her hand went to her mouth. Blood dripped between her fingers. Her knees gave out from under again and she weakly sagged against the wall back to the ground.

"Izumi," Sig said and rushed to his wife's side. With more gentleness than anyone would have thought someone his size capable of, the man cradled her bloody form to him.

"No… protect Al…" she rasped, coughing on another mouthful of blood. "Don't let him get Al…"

But it was too late.

Getting back to his feet, the chimera made another lunge for the boy. Al tried to do another transmutation as he scrambled away, but before he could Tucker spun and caught the young alchemist in the back of the neck with his tail. Al's eyes went wide for a moment, his whole body going stiff. Then with almost lethargic slowness he sagged to the ground, his eyes fluttering shut.

Tucker gently lifted the unconscious boy into arms. "Soon, Alphonse…" he chuckled, cradling the alchemist to his chest like a baby. "Soon we'll have him back…" Then turning on his heels, the chimera took off. His lumbering footsteps echoed through the empty streets as he disappeared into the misty curtains of rain that'd begun to fall.

Izumi and Sig stared after them, helpless to do anything to stop him.

"No," Izumi yelled after them, shaking her head angrily. "No!"

Why could she never protect her children? Why did someone always try to take her children away from her? First her baby, then Ed, now Al…

Using her husband's shoulder for support, the alchemist shakily pushed herself to her feet.

"Izumi." She could hear the concern in her husband's voice as she weakly staggered away from him.

"We have to go back, dear," she said, wiping the last bit of blood from her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Back where?" her husband's voice rumbled through the rain-laced air.

"We're going to need help getting Al back," Izumi replied, turning back to face him with fire in her eyes, "and unfortunately, I think we're going to need the military's help. I have an awful feeling I know what that chimera's planning to do."

Turning back the way they'd just come, Izumi and her husband took off in the direction of Central Headquarters, desperate to warn her student's ex-commander of Alphonse's abduction and the horrible deed they feared was about to be committed.

Meanwhile, overhead, the floodgates of heaven seemed to open up and unleash its misery on the city below. In the distance, a low roll of thunder sounded, echoing across the land like a ominous warning of what was to come.

* * *

Consciousness returned slowly to Alphonse Elric. The first thing he became aware of as the sea of darkness began to release its hold on him was the throbbing pain in his head. The next, more gradual realization was that he was sitting on the ground, propped up against something hard - and that his feet and hands were tied.

Memories of what happened right before everything had suddenly gone black came back to him in a flood of mental images. His meeting with colonel Mustang. Him and Izumi walking back from Headquarters. A strange man appearing - a chimera. Fighting. And then-

Al's eyes flew open, the boy snapping back to full awareness. He immediately regretted it because the throbbing pain in his head instantly became like a metal spike through the brain. Al groaned as he clenched his eyes shut and waited for the pain to return to a tolerable agony.

Finally feeling like he could open his eyes again without risk of losing the contents of his stomach, the young alchemist took stock of his surroundings.

It was dark. The only source of light was from several huge, tank-like containers sitting at different intervals around the room. They looked like they were filled with water, and glowed a dark eerie red. In the dark shadows of the room Al could make out the faint outlines of tables and equipment: microscopes, books, glass containers, and other ominous looking instruments.

It was then Al realized he must be in some kind of laboratory. But it looked like it had been abandoned at some point and only recently recommissioned. Cracks ran across the walls, plaster peeling in huge chucks in some places. Dust covered the floor, and one corner of the ceiling to Al's left looked like it was in danger of collapsing at any moment.

Looking around the dilapidated laboratory, Al caught sight of a series of lines painted on the ground in the middle of the room. They circled and crisscrossed each other, forming a complex design. A jolt went through him at the realization what they were. They were the lines of a giant alchemy array.

In the middle of the array sat a large metal tub filled with water and a pile of different colored powders.

"Ah… I see you're finally awake," a raspy voice drifted out of the shadows.

Al looked towards it. As expected, the lumbering figure of the ex-State Alchemist-turned-chimera Shou Tucker stepped into the faint glow of light. He was no longer wearing his trench coat and Al was finally able to see his entire body. It made a cold shiver run down Al's spine. He looked like a man fused backwards to the back of a giant bear or sloth.

"I must apologize for the way I brought you here," Tucker said, moving towards the bound alchemist, "but I fear I am in a bit of a rush… My Nina can't wait any longer…"

Al stared in horror at the sight he beheld as the chimera came into the light. In the man-beast's arms he cradled what looked like a little girl no older than four or five years old. Long brown hair the color of cinnamon spilled down the girl's shoulders and over the chimera's arms. It shrouded her body like a blanket, long and luxurious. But then Al caught sight of the rest of her body, and felt the threat of nausea rise up in his throat.

The girl's body was covered with patches of green, discolored skin. Open wounds spotted her flesh and suppurated dark, blackish goo like the innards of a tomato left out in the sun for too long. The smell of rot and decay filled Al's nose, making him gag. He had to choke back the urge not to retch.

But even worse than the smell were the girls eyes. Oh god, her eyes! Like the eyes of a dead fish, two milky blue orbs stared back at Al - empty and devoid of all human life.

"My poor Nina…" Tucker murmured as he tenderly stroked the corpse's hair. "Nothing I do will help… She's become so sick…"

Al couldn't take the sight anymore. "What do you want with me!" he screamed, struggling against the cords binding his wrists and ankles. "Why'd you bring me here?"

Tucker turned away and gently laid the rotting girl down, as if she was some kind of precious treasure.

Turning back to Al he said, "My Nina is sick… Nothing I do can make her well. Everyday she gets a little bit worse…"

"That's because she's dead!" Al yelled, his voice echoing through the empty laboratory like a gunshot. "Can't you see that?"

Tucker flinched. His head hung down his chest. "I know my Nina died. That's why I brought her back. You even helped me bring her back by letting me use the Philosopher's Stone…"

Al stared at the chimera, confused and unsure. Had he? Had he helped this man bring his daughter back? But then why did the girl look like this? Nothing made sense. Now more than ever Al wished he had his memory back.

"My Nina was perfect…" Tucker went on. "The Philosopher's Stone brought her back as beautiful as I remembered. But then a few months ago she became sick…"

The hulking chimera slowly moved towards the alchemy array in the middle of the room. "That's why I need your help to bring Edward back," he explained. "I need him to remake the Philosopher's Stone… Then I can restore my Nina. But I need Edward… He is the only one that knows how to make the Philosopher's Stone…"

"Why do you need me?" Al demanded. "What do I have to do with any of this?"

Tucker turned back to Al, his upside-down face bathed in shadows from the glowing water tanks. "I am going to resurrect Edward," he said, a wild look entering his eyes. "I have researched everything that I could about human transmutations and done all the necessary calculations. All I need now is the final ingredient…"

Slowly moving back towards Al, he stood over the bound alchemist. "Many of the texts I read concerning human transmutation differ in their theories of how it can be achieved," he explained. "But since human transmutation is illegal, none of the authors have actually done it. All they have are theories. But several of them agree on one things: that something must be added to the basic elements of the transmutation to compensate for the memories of the one being resurrected. If you wanted to resurrect someone with no memories, then there's no problems. But since it is imperative I bring Edward back with his memories of how to create the Philosopher's Stone, you must now see why I need your help…'

"The different books do not explain what should be given in exchange for the person's memories, but there was some speculation that something added from a living relative or close acquaintance of that person would help infuse their old memories to the new body…and that is why I brought you here… I need you to help me bring Edward and his memories back…"

Al stared at the chimera in horror. "It doesn't work like that! What you're trying to do is madness! My brother and I tried to bring our mother back like that, and it didn't work!"

"Not the way I heard it," Tucker replied. "I believe you both donated a drop of blood to the composition elements of your mother's body and resurrected her with some, if not all, of her memories."

"But what about Equivalent Exchange?" Al demanded, desperately trying to talk some sense into the deranged man. He might not remember what happened after that night, but he did remember the terrible consequences of what he and his brother had tried to do. "Brother and I both lost all or part of our bodies in the transmutation! What are you going to give in exchange? It's too dangerous!"

Tucker just grinned. "I have already taken that into account." He pointed at the tanks of blood red water lining the room. "I have heard about your unfortunate amnesia, so you probably won't remember what this is. It's called Red Water. Though not nearly as powerful as the real thing, it is an incomplete variant of the Philosopher's Stone. I will use it to bring Edward back."

"If it's so powerful, why don't you use that to bring your daughter back with?" Al yelled, glaring at the man. "Why do you need Brother? Why do you need to bring him back just so he can turn around and bring _her_ back? It doesn't make any sense!"

Tucker turned and lumbered towards a nearby table where he picked up a knife. "Because I want my real daughter back," he murmured, his voice solemn and low. "I want my Nina back heart, body and soul; not just an empty doll… and only a real Philosopher's Stone can do that… It doesn't matter how Edward comes back. Just as long as he remembers how to make a Philosopher's Stone…"

Al suddenly realized with a terrifying certainty this man holding him captive was completely and utterly insane.

Tucker came back towards him with the knife and a tiny glass vial. Al struggled against his restraints and tried to squirm away from the deranged chimera, but was helpless to escape as the man easily pulled him back and pinned him to the floor. Al felt the sharp pain of the knife slice across his right thumb, and then the sticky warmth of blood flow down the side of his hand. He lay there motionless as Tucker finally stood and moved back towards the alchemy circle in the middle of the room, the glass vial now filled with dark red blood.

"You don't know what you're doing," Al hissed as Tucker poured the vial of blood on the pile of elemental powders. "You have _no_ idea what you're about to do."

"You should be thanking me, Alphonse," Tucker replied, not even looking back at the bound boy as he knelt on the edge of the array and held his hands out over it. "I'm about to bring your dear brother back to you…"

Al looked away, unable to watch. Yes, he wanted his brother back. But not like this.

Tucker's hands hovered over the edge of the complex alchemy array. He began to bring them down to start the transmutation, to activate the forbidden exchange-

The door to the room suddenly burst inward and a group of uniformed people appeared.

"Shou Tucker! Step away from the array, and put your hands in the air where I can see them!" a voice bellowed at the kneeling chimera.

Al's head shot up, hope flooding his entire body. He knew that voice. He recognized it from that morning.

Standing in the broken doorway stood the impressive figure of colonel Roy Mustang. The colonel's one eye quickly took in the scene before finally coming to rest on Tucker in the middle of the room. For a moment, Al thought he actually saw fire flash through the colonel's eye. Behind Mustang stood half a dozen other soldiers, several of whom Al recognized from the colonel's office. One of them - a blonde woman with dark red eyes - had her pistol drawn and aimed past the colonel into the room. Behind them stood two other figures...

"Sensei!" he yelled, once again struggling against his bonds. "You have to stop him! He's going to do a human transmutation! He's going to try and bring back Brother!"

Izumi's face paled, her stern features betraying the undeniable look of fear. Beside her, even Sig looked uneasy.

Colonel Mustang stepped into the room, his hands clenched into fists. "Move away from the array, Tucker!" he yelled, his tone promising a painful demise if he was not immediately obeyed.

An angry growl sounded in the back of the chimera's throat. "I haven't come so far to give up now," he hissed. "I need him to bring my Nina back…" Turning back to the chalked circle, Tucker slapped his palms on the outer circle of the complex alchemy array.

Brilliant white light exploded into the air.

" _NO_!" Al heard the colonel shout from the other side of the room, before his voice was lost behind the crackling charge of energy. The sound of shattering glass exploded somewhere nearby.

Al didn't know how long the transmutation lasted. It could have been seconds, or hours, or days. All he was aware of was the overwhelming tide of energy washing over him, and the feel of the very air itself being ripped apart around him. He felt like he'd just been caught in the middle of some terrible storm. It took all his strength just to lay there and ride out the horrible winds that grabbed and tore at his helpless body.

Finally, the blinding white light began to recede, leaving an empty void of darkness in its wake.

Al lay there motionless, his eyes tightly shut against the spots burned into his retinas. It was only when he felt someone hurry to his side and sever the cords binding his wrists and ankles that he finally opened his eyes and found Izumi kneeling beside him. Her expression was too turbulent to read.

Pushing himself to his knees, Al dazedly looked around the laboratory. The tanks of glowing water that once lined the room were empty - shattered by the force of the powerful transmutation that had just taken place. Smoke filled the laboratory, hovering like a blanket over the chalked-in area of floor in the center of the room. Al could see nothing through the smoke. The smell of burnt ozone choked the air.

"What have you done?" Al heard Mustang yell, and watched as the colonel rushed forward, angrily grabbed Tucker by the shoulders, and shook him. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?!"

The chimera however did not answer and stared at the swirling area of smoke in the middle of the room. Mustang followed his gaze. Everyone there stared, waiting in tense anticipation and dread to see what would appear.

The smoke slowly began to clear, shifting aside like curtains of thin, gauzy cloth. And then they finally saw of the product of Shou Tucker's transmutation.

Al covered his mouth and stifled a cry of revulsion.

What lay in the middle of Tucker's alchemy array was no human being, but rather the twisted, bloody form of a grotesque monster. Its limbs were bony and warped, its hands nothing more than twisted claws. Its skin was paper-thin and scaly like a castoff snake's. Organs and deformed bones could be seen through its almost transparent skin. It shuddered and twitched on the floor, gasping for air in a strange gurgling wheeze. Strands of straggly blond hair were visible beneath its monstrous head. Two demonic eyes - the color of alchemized gold - stared back at Al from an inhuman face. It had the same expression of an injured, dying animal.

Staring at the monstrous thing, Al felt an uncomfortable tingle start in the back of his mind. And then, before he even knew what was happening, a flood of images surged through his mind, drowning him under the visual onslaught of persons, places, and things he never remembered seeing or knowing until now.

A young boy laying unconscious in a sterile hospital bed, his right arm and left leg missing… A man with an X-shaped scar on his face standing over the same boy, a little older now, with the hand of his evil-looking tattooed arm resting on the boy's head… The boy transmuting his arm into a metal blade… The boy asleep with his head resting on folded arms over an open alchemy textbook… The boy grimacing in pain as a new metal arm and leg were attached to the ports of his missing limbs… The boy with a look of grim determination in his eyes… The boy sneaking a shy look at a tall, wrench-wielding girl… The boy frowning… The boy smiling… The boy laughing… The boy, the boy, the boy… Always the boy…

With an almost painful gasp, Al remembered everything from the missing four years of his life and his older brother, Edward Elric.

Staring at the monstrous thing on the floor, Al saw in his mind's eye the smiling face of his older brother somehow superimposed over that of the twisted creature's. Like they were somehow one in the same.

A horrified scream tore from Al's mouth. Kicking against the ground, the young alchemist frantically scrambled away from the inhuman creature to put as much distance between him and it until he finally felt himself collide with the wall behind him.

Turning his face to the side, he lost the battle with his own revulsion and horror and vomited onto the floor.


	2. Those We Remember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mustang deals with the consequences of Tucker's transmutation. Emotions win over logic.

**Chapter Two: Those We Remember**

The monster gave a gurgled screech. It writhed in jerky, uncoordinated movements on the floor, smearing the puddle of bloody offal it had been born in.

Roy Mustang stared at the thing in utter revulsion, bile rising in the back of his throat. A cold wave of horror washed over him. Disgust the likes he'd never felt before twisted his stomach, threatening to overwhelm him.

Behind him he heard several soldiers cry out in horror. He couldn't say he blamed them. What they saw was a monster.

Beside him, Riza took an unconscious step backwards, her gun almost dropping from her hands in shock. Havoc, Breda, Falman, and Fuery all looked sickened. On the other side of the room, Mustang heard Alphonse retch.

"I did it…" a shaky whisper broke the horrified silence of the room. "I really did it. I brought him back…"

Mustang's head snapped towards it. Shou Tucker was still kneeling on the ground, staring at his twisted creation in ecstatic disbelief. "I did it. I brought Edward back…"

Roy felt something inside him snap. His vision blurred red. Grabbing the chimera by its furry shoulders, he buried his fist in the Life-Sewing Alchemist's jaw. "You fool!" he screamed into Tucker's face. "Do you have any idea what you've done!?"

Tucker spit out a mouthful of blood. His lip was split. The blow hadn't done anything to erase the insane look lighting his upside-down face, much to Mustang's chagrin. "I brought Edward back," he replied, his eyes shining with excitement. "Now he can bring my Nina back. Ed will know how to do it…"

Roy had to fight himself not to punch the man again. "That thing's not Edward Elric," he hissed in Tucker's face. "That thing's not even human." Angrily shoving the chimera away from him, he yelled over his shoulder to two soldiers standing in the doorway. "Get this pitiful excuse for a human being out of my sight! Now!"

This seemed to startle them out of their horrified daze. With a startled jump the soldiers hurried forward and seized the ex-State Alchemist.

"Wait!" Tucker cried as they began dragging him towards the door. "What about my Nina? Edward has to bring my Nina back! He has to make a new Philosopher's Stone! No! What about Nina? What about my Nina!"

Then he was gone.

Breathing hard and still trying to control the storm of rage inside him, Roy glanced at the rotting corpse on the other side of the room. Once again, revulsion rose in the back of his throat. He'd heard what Tucker had done to his daughter all those years ago. He must have tried resurrecting her at some point, like he'd done Ed. But because she was nothing more than a lifeless doll the body had eventually died and begun to decompose. He couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of thoughts were going through Tucker's mind to think that rotting, putrid corpse was still his daughter.

It made Roy physically sick to the stomach.

A gurgled screech brought Mustang slamming back to reality. The creature had begun weakly pulling at the floor as though trying to move or crawl away. Its bloody limbs twitched and spasmed, uselessly clawing at the dirty, chalk-lined ground.

A mixture of pity and disgust welled up inside of Mustang. He carefully stepped towards it.

"Sir…" Havoc weakly called after him. "What are we going to do with that… thing?"

Roy stepped up to it. The creature ceased its struggles and looked up at him, wheezing and gurgling like an injured animal. He had to swallow against the press of bile in the back of his throat before he was able to respond.

"This thing cannot be allowed to live." He stared at the twisted creature. "It is an abomination."

He slowly raised one hand. The alchemy array on the back of his glove stood out like a ring of blood on the pure white cloth in the darkness of the laboratory. His thumb and forefinger were poised, ready to snap and unleash their hellish fury on this wretched parody of a human being.

The creatures stared at him, wheezing and twitching.

The colonel's hand hovered over it, ready to deliver the fatal blow. His hand shook. His thumb and forefinger were pressed together so tightly his joints ached under the pressure. He had to kill this thing. It couldn't be allowed to live. It was an abomination. It went against everything that made them human. It was nothing but a monster created by a deranged scientist. It had to be destroyed.

But try as Roy might, he could not bring himself to ignite the flammable material of his gloves.

The creature's eyes - a pale amber, like alchemized gold - stared up at him. He knew those eyes. He remembered how they used to stare at him in defiant challenge or flash with irritation.

He also recognized the strands of blond hair hanging from the creature's head. It was dirty and covered in filth. But he recognized it. Although ugly, twisted, and deformed he recognized this pitiful creature. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't help but see the face of Edward Elric staring back at him from this hideous monster.

He fought with himself to ignite the deadly flames, to put this poor creature out of its misery. But-

"I can't…" he softly whispered.

Lowering his hand in defeat, Mustang stepped away from the wheezing creature. His heart was a churning mess of disgust, rage, regret, and loss.

He felt someone step up beside him. "Let me, sir," Hawkeye murmured.

Slowly raising her gun, the sharpshooter took aim at the creature's head. Despite her stoic expression Mustang saw Hawkeye hesitate. Her gun faltered, its tip shying just ever so slightly away from its intended target. For that to happen Roy knew Hawkeye had to be in a near distraught state of mind.

The creature, as if sensing it was in danger, weakly began to try to crawl away again. It feebly clawed at the ground, smearing the pool of blood it'd been born in.

Hawkeye again hesitated, her gun faltering. But then, with a sharpened look of resolve in her eyes she once again took aim and pressed her finger to the trigger.

" _NO!_ " a frantic shout rang out. A blur of red and gold shot out of the corner of Mustang's eye and before he knew it Alphonse was suddenly standing in front of them with his arms outstretched to the sides. The creature uselessly scrabbled at the floor behind him. "No! You can't do it! I remember now! You can't kill him!"

"Al-" Roy said.

"NO! You can't kill him!" he shouted, too hysterical to listen. There were tears in the boy's eyes. His lower lip was trembling. "Please! I remember now! I remember everything! Somehow seeing him helped me remember! Please! You can't kill him!" Roy could tell by the boy's face that Al was teetering dangerously close to a nervous breakdown. He didn't know how Al suddenly regained his memories. But a return of his memories coupled with the sudden unholy return of his older brother could not have done anything good for the boy's emotional state of mind.

"Al…" Roy again tried to reason, "that thing's not your brother. It's not Ed. I know it might look like him, but it's not him. That thing's not human."

Al's lower lip trembled, tears pooling his grey eyes. "I know that!" he cried, his voice breaking with emotion. "I know he's not Brother, but…" He glanced back over his shoulder at the creature still pitifully trying to crawl away. "He's still a living thing. Please. You can't kill him."

Riza glanced at Roy - her gun still raised - waiting for instruction. Roy looked between Al and the twisted creature on the floor. It's gold eyes stared back at him. They seemed to stare straight down into his soul.

Shaking his head miserably, Roy motioned for Riza to lower her gun. Hawkeye gave him an unsure look but obediently re-holstered her weapon.

Seeing that danger had successfully been averted Al slowly sank to his knees beside the creature, his head falling to his chest. An anguished sob escaped the boy's throat from behind a curtain of long blonde bangs. His shoulders began to shake with ragged sobs.

Riza knelt in front of him and drew him into an embrace. "Shh, Al… It's alright. No one's going to hurt it," she whispered, hugging the boy close as if in apology for what she'd almost done.

Al greedily accepted the lieutenant's offered comfort and clung to her, his sobs muffled into the side of her neck.

Roy silently watched them, his heart aching at the sight. Despite his own turbulent emotions he felt his heart go out to the young alchemist. Barely three hours ago boy had been in his office asking him for any information about his dead brother. And now, what felt like a lifetime later, Al had his brother and all his memories back. Except that the Ed he loved and finally remembered was nothing more than a twisted, soulless creature writhing on the floor.

It was wrong. So horribly, horribly _wrong_.

Another figure stepped up to him in the middle of the bloody alchemy array. It was the Elric brother's teacher.

For a moment Izumi just stared at the creature, her expression unreadable. Roy might have only been imagining it but he thought he saw a flash of utter heartbreak flash through her eyes.

Shrugging off her jacket, she knelt beside the grotesque parody of her former student and draped it over its twitching body.

"What do you plan to do with him?" Izumi's voice drifted to Roy over Al's muffled sobs. Despite her choice of pronoun, Roy knew the female alchemist was not talking about Tucker or her crying student.

Roy shook his head. "It will probably be taken to a government research lab," he replied, refusing to think of that… _thing_ as a person. He couldn't do it. He refused to. He didn't care if it had Edward's eyes or not. That thing could never be Fullmetal or take the place of the one they'd lost. Ed had been special - completely irreplaceable. "That thing is a monster. It doesn't even look human."

Izumi knelt for a moment of silence, her head bowed to her chest. "Find me a private place to take him," she finally said, her voice resolute and brooking no room for argument as she watched the creature mindlessly writhe beneath her coat. "I can help him achieve his human form. I know what to do."

* * *

Outside, the world was in turmoil. Curtains of rain lashed the windows like it was pounding at the glass for entrance. Thunder rumbled overhead as if the very foundations of Heaven were threatening to collapse. The city seemed to cringe under the storm's assault. The waterlogged streets were empty, no one daring to venture into the deluge.

As wind and rain beat at the windows, Mustang silently watched the dark haired alchemy teacher inspect the contents of a small drawstring pouch.

"This should be enough," she said, looking up and drawing it shut. It sat heavy in the palm of her hand like a pouch of ill-gotten gold.

No one said anything in response, not quite sure what exactly _to_ say in such a situation.

It had taken some careful maneuvering and pulling of rank, but Roy had managed to secret the product of Shou Tucker's transmutation out of the abandoned remains of Laboratory Number Five to a secure location. It was one of Central's low level military medical centers. Despite the institution's close ties to the military, Roy trusted its staff. He knew enough of the doctors and nurses there to ensure their confidentiality and discretion.

With a little manipulation and subtle heavy-handedness, he'd been able to procure a private room on the far west side of the building. It was far enough from the rest of the hospital's general population and staff to ensure some secrecy. Despite the perceived privacy that hadn't stopped Mustang from stationing two of his men at either end of the hallway to make sure no one else came upon them while Izumi was working.

The thing Tucker had transmuted into being currently lay in the room he, Hawkeye, his personal military staff, Izumi, her husband, and Alphonse Elric stood outside of. Inside, the creature's pitiful groans and inhuman cries could be heard through the door.

Al was sitting on a bench near the door, his head held in his hands with his elbows on his knees. His face was hidden behind a curtain of long bangs. Since leaving Laboratory Five, the alchemist had become silent and withdrawn. He refused to speak to anyone. Roy couldn't blamed him. He couldn't even begin to imagine what was going through the poor boy's mind right now. He'd only just regained the memories of the missing four years of his life and was now faced with this. It was a truly cruel and horrific situation.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Roy said, eyeing the pouch in the alchemy teacher's hand.

What she wanted to do still left a bad taste in his mouth. But for reasons Mustang couldn't fathom he hadn't done anything to talk her out of it or try to stop her. In fact, he was actually helping her! What was wrong with him? He knew what they were doing was wrong - it had to be! But why did a part of him also hope she succeeded? That twisted parody of a human laying on the other side of that door was the epitome of all mankind's arrogance and egotistical attempts to play God. It had no right to be alive or bear the resemblance of the one Tucker had fashioned it after. It was a monster, a soulless look-alike made in a vain attempt to replace the boy they'd loved and lost. And it was for that reason more than anything else Mustang hated it. It didn't matter the thing hadn't had any say in its own creation or not. It existed. And for that Roy could never forgive it.

Yet, despite his hatred and disgust for it, a part of him still hoped Izumi succeeded.

God was he really that desperate, he wondered. Was he really that desperate to see Edward Elric again that he was willing to help this woman complete the final stage of the creature's transformation? It was a sick and twisted game he was playing. He knew this. He **_knew_** this. But he found himself unable to stop. He wanted to see bright gold eyes full of challenge again. He wanted to hear profanity-laced threats of retribution. He wanted to see automail transformed into a sharpened blade of steel. He wanted angry outbursts. He wanted defiant sarcasm.

Basically, he wanted Edward Elric back.

He supposed that was why he couldn't bring himself to dispose of the soulless Homunculus that'd been created in Edward's place. It was ironic when he thought about it. Ed and Al had spent the better part of two years battling the immortal creatures, and that was exactly what Edward Elric had come back as.

Yes. That's what it was. Ironic. Exceedingly, heartbreakingly ironic.

Izumi's face was unreadable as she stared at the pouch, her features shadowed with some emotion Roy could not exactly place. "I don't know if this will work or not," she softly admitted. "I've never tried to foster a Homunculus' growth before. I only know that they need to feed on these-" she motioned with her chin to the pouch, "-to acquire their final form."

Roy stared at the innocuous looking pouch. He knew what was inside. Izumi had shown him after she'd demanded they stop at the hotel she, her husband and Al were staying to get before they continued on to the hospital. Inside was a small stash of blood red stones. They were fake, incomplete Philosopher's Stones, she'd explained. They were what gave the Homunculus their power and strength. It was only after they fed on these that they were finally able to gain their true form.

"Where did you get those?" Mustang asked, eyeing the bag distrustfully. "I was unaware there were still people trying to make the Philosopher's Stone, or at least some kind of substitute for it."

The alchemy teacher's features darkened. "I found these hidden in my old alchemy teacher's house after her murder. These stones are probably the last of their kind. I doubt anyone has made any more since Ed disappeared three years ago. The method of their creation is just like a true Philosopher's Stone: evil."

Mustang's eye narrowed suspiciously. "Then why do you have them? I find it strange that an alchemist like you would make a habit out of keeping Homunculus fodder on you. What reason could you possibly have to keep these stones?"

Izumi did not immediately answer, her expression distant and pained. "That is none of your business," she finally said, her tone stern. "My reasons for keeping these stones are my own. I'll only say that I keep them in case I ever meet someone who might need them.( **1** )"

Roy didn't know what to make of that. He did however see Alphonse cringe out of the corner of his eye, as if with his returned memories he somehow knew what his teacher was talking about.

Turning towards the room, Izumi clutched the pouch of stones to her chest. "No one is to follow me or enter for any reason," she said, pausing in the doorway with her back to the rest of the group. The creature's gurgled wheezes echoed drifting into the hallway from inside. "If anyone does, I'll kill them…"

The door swung close behind her as she disappeared inside.

For several heartbeats no one spoke. Izumi's threat and the gravity of the entire situation hung like a heavy presence in the air. The sharp tap of raindrops on the windows was the only thing to break the silence. Somewhere overhead thunder rolled.

No one seemed strong or brave enough to speak, each lost in their own turbulent thoughts. Silence reigned.

Then, just as the storm seemed to be cresting in intensity outside, a monstrous scream suddenly pierced the air. It echoed out of the room through the room's closed door.

Everyone startled at the sound. Horror washed over many of their faces. Al cringed down into his seat, covering his ears with both hands as if trying to block out the horrible sounds.

A cold chill ran down Mustang's spine.

Another inhuman cry rang out. It sounded like the tortured scream of some monster in the deepest circle of hell.

A muffled sob escaped Al's throat as he shook his head, clutching his ears as if to somehow make the noises stop. His eyes were clenched shut. Tears beaded along his eyelashes.

A sick feeling rose up inside of Roy as another scream sliced the air. He began to move to the door. This wasn't right. He couldn't let this go on. He had to make it stop.

Before he could reach the door, he felt someone pull him back. He looked up to find Izumi's husband standing behind him with one massive hand resting on his shoulder. The man said nothing. He gave a solemn shake of his head and slowly released Mustang's shoulder. His unspoken message was clear: _It's too late. There's nothing you can do now._

For a moment, Roy considered ignoring the man and barging into the room - the woman alchemist's warning be damned!

But then with reluctant nod of understanding, Roy turned away from the door. An overwhelming sense of helplessness washed over him.

The screams continued, one bleeding right into the next. They seemed endless. Roy was sure he'd never heard such hellish sounds before except maybe in his darkest nightmares. His men also looked unnerved. Their faces were anxious and pale.

Al was now openly sobbing, his hands still uselessly clamped over his ears. Roy couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of thoughts were going through the young alchemist's mind. This was so wrong. This wasn't how Al was supposed to get his older brother back.

Unable to do anything else Mustang moved to the boy's side and put a hand on his shoulder, offering him a silent anchor of support.

Another inhuman screech sliced the air making Al cringe under the colonel's touch.

Roy didn't know how long the screams went on. Ten minutes? Thirty minutes? An hour? He didn't know. It felt like forever. Then, after what felt like eternity the screams began to change.

What had started off as inhuman, animal-like shrieks slowly began to morph into the anguished screams of a human being. It was a disturbing transition, one that had many in Mustang's outfit exchanging uneasy looks. Even Izumi's stoic husband appeared disturbed. For the voice screaming so loudly in pained torment was a familiar one - one none of them had ever thought they'd hear again.

Gradually, the screams faded into silence. The tap of the rain against the windows suddenly seemed muffled to their ringing ears.

The door to the hospital room opened and Izumi appeared. The alchemy teacher's face was shadowed and drawn. Haunted. She looked exhausted as if the process had somehow taken something out of herself. The drawstring pouch dangled from her hand, empty.

Sig moved towards her and gently drew her to his side. Izumi leaned into his embrace, wrapping one arm around his waist as if for both physical and emotional support. She refused to meet anyone's eyes as the two of them began to move off, Izumi leaning against her husband's side.

Roy stepped forward. "What happened?" he demanded, searching the alchemy teacher's face.

Izumi refused to meet his eyes. "It's done…" was all she said before pushing past him and continuing down the hall.

Roy stared after them. Turning back towards the quiet hospital room, Roy saw that Al had made no move to get up or go inside. He still sat where Roy had left him - his head silently cradled in both hands with long blond hair hiding his face from view.

Hawkeye, Breda, Fulman, Havoc, and Fuery were all staring at him, as if waiting for him to tell them what to do.

Mustang took a deep, shaky breath before moving towards the room. "Everyone wait here," he ordered, not meeting anyone else's eyes. He paused for a moment in front of Al. "I'll see it first…"

Al did not look up or give any other kind of response to show he'd heard the colonel.

The other soldiers said nothing and silently stared after him as Mustang stepped into the room.

Roy hesitated just inside the door once he was sure he was out of his men's sight. He felt a queasy sense of nervousness rise up inside him. He didn't know if he wanted to do this. He didn't know if he was ready to see the result of Izumi's efforts.

The bed stood on the far side of the room. He could just make out a body laying underneath the sheets. Mustang could detect no sign of life from its occupant. Did the creature die under Izumi's ministrations? Roy didn't know if he felt hopeful or disheartened by the thought.

Gathering up his courage, the Flame Alchemist stepped up to the side of the bed.

As he drew near, he was finally able to see its occupant's face - and felt his heart clench with a thousand different emotions.

Long blond hair spilled across the pillow like waves of finely spun gold. Features he suddenly realized he hadn't remembered quite as clearly as he thought he had were like a jolting bolt of color to the ones that'd begun to grow hazy and grey in the back of his mind. Two half circles of dark eyelashes were pressed to pale white cheeks, but Roy knew that behind those eyelids lay eyes the exact same color of alchemized gold.

Roy's heart twisted in his chest.

Laying there on the bed was none other than Edward Elric.

 _No!_ the rational part of Roy's mind screamed as he stared at the boy laying there like the ghost of some long forgotten memory. _No! That's not Edward! That's not Fullmetal! It's a Homunculus! Nothing but a soulless monster! That thing's not even human!_

Looking closer, Roy saw that unlike the one of his painful memories this disturbing double had two flesh arms. He also suspected that underneath that sterile white hospital sheet lay a matching set of legs. He was also uncomfortably aware of the tattoo marring the boy's right upper arm. It was the image of a winged serpent devouring its own tail - the mark of a Homunculus.

 _No… this thing isn't Fullmetal_ , he thought with a renewed sense of hatred. _The Edward I knew was mismatched and scarred. A total brat. But human. And one with a good soul. You could tell by how fiercely he always fought to protect Al and everyone else he cared about._ _This thing's nothing but a cheap fake._

Roy stared at the sleeping boy with warring emotions. A part of him wanted to let his hatred blind him so he could wash his hands of this soulless look-alike and leave without ever looking back or having anything more to do with it. And yet…

And yet…

It still looked **_so_** much like the boy he remembered.

Roy's heart ached with the jumbled confusion of emotions. Could he somehow have the Edward Elric he remembered back? Could he somehow regain a piece of that foulmouthed prodigy through this cheap replacement? But could he ever look at the face of this disturbing double without seeing in the back of his mind the image of a twisted monster laying in the middle of a bloody alchemy array?

Lost in his thoughts Mustang was only brought back to the present when he heard the faint whisper of a moan come from the bed.

Roy froze, staring at the sleeping figure. His heart thundered against the inside of his chest. He suddenly found himself unable to move, trepidation and unexplainable fear robbing him of voluntary movement.

Another groan like a fevered whimper sounded in the back of the boy's throat. His eyelids weakly fluttered.

As Roy watched in fearful paralysis the boy's eyes slowly opened. They drifted apart as if each weighed a thousand pounds and it took all the boy's strength just to pull them open. Just as Roy remembered, the boy's eyes were gold.

The boy blankly stared up at the ceiling as if he was still caught in some exhausted fever dream. Blinking, the boy's eyes swiveled around the darkened hospital room before finally coming to rest on Roy standing beside the bed.

Mustang's breath caught in his throat.

The boy stared at him, his fevered eyes boring into Mustang as if trying to place his face.

Mustang stood for what felt like an eternity staring into those hauntingly familiar pools of gold. Those eyes… Oh god, those eyes. He knew those eyes. Why did they have to look so familiar? Why did they have to look at him with such intensity? Why did they have to stare at him as if this disturbing look-alike might somehow actually know who he was? Why-

"Colonel?"

The raspy whisper sounded as loud as a gunshot to Mustang in the quiet of the room.

Roy's heart clenched painfully in the middle of his chest. That voice… He knew that voice. Although weak and as dry as a piece of sandpaper from the hours screaming at the top of his lungs, there was no denying whose voice that was.

As if that single word had drained him of all his strength the boy's eyes drifted close again.

Roy watched in turbulent, heartbroken silence as the soulless counterpart of Edward Elric slipped back into the dark abyss of unconsciousness.

To Be Continued

( **1** ) Izumi's talking about Wrath. She's still holding out on the hope of her Homunculus child someday coming back to her.

A/N: The show and manga never really went into how long it takes for a newly born Homunculus to gain their true form, so I kind of had to take artistic licensing here. I also couldn't help but think it would be a painful process.


	3. Those We Forgive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ed searches for a way home from the other side of the Gate. Al meets the product of Tucker's transmutation.

**Chapter Three: Those We Forgive**

Rain beat noisily against the windows. In the distance, a low rumble of thunder echoed across the heavens. A light chill hung in the air, laced with dampness.

Another clap of thunder sounded, this time closer.

A murmured groan - like that of one waking up but reluctant to leave the dark void of unconsciousness just yet - sounded. A thin figure shifted beneath the sheets of a bed on the far side of the room. Tussled blonde hair - the same color of sun bleached straw - spilled across the pillow, shining dully in the pale grey light.

Yet another roll of thunder sounded, this time rattling the panes of glass.

Two eyelids drifted apart to reveal bright gold irises. For a moment, they stared ahead into nothing as if their owner was unwilling to return to full consciousness. Lingering exhaustion weighed down heavy eyelids.

As another crash of thunder sounded, the owner of said eyes - a lithe, long-haired boy about eighteen years old - turned his face to the side and nuzzled it deeper into the pillow.

"Goddamn rain," he groggily cursed into fabric.

Pulling the covers closer, the boy burrowed deeper into his cocoon of blankets as if determined to ignore the storm and go back to sleep. But it seemed Fate wasn't about to let him. Because just as he started to drift off again another deafening crash of thunder sounded, shaking the very foundations of the house.

"GODDAMMIT! Can't a guy get any sleep in this godforsaken world!"

Kicking back the covers, the boy angrily rolled out of bed and stood. Clad in only boxer shorts, the boy made a striking sight. Although not impressive in either height or build, the sight of two prosthetic limbs attached to his right shoulder and left leg would have made anyone give pause and stare at the teen. Ragged scars ran back and forth across his flesh at the base of each artificial limb, as if his missing limbs had somehow been violently torn from his body instead of cleanly cut.

Stalking to the window, an irritated Edward Elric stared out the rain-streaked glass. An angry, storm-blackened sky met his gaze. Munich's rain-drenched skyline stretched out before him like a dark watercolor painting. Below, the streets were empty. No one, it seemed, was willing to brave the torrential downpour currently unleashing its fury on the city.

Ed gave a sigh. He wondered if it was raining back home. Whenever something happened in this world he often found himself wondering if the same event was occuring in the world he'd left behind.

Ed turned away from the window, suddenly despondent. That usually happened whenever he caught himself thinking about Amestris and the people still there.

_Three years…_ he thought as he went about the tedious chore of getting dressed. (No matter how flexible his bastard father might have made his replacement prosthetics, they were no where as agile as Winry's automail ones he'd outgrown several years ago; thus making things like getting dressed a somewhat clumsy affair.) _Three years and I still haven't found a way to get back home._

On the wall behind him was a poster of a rocket shooting across the sky. Since sacrificing himself to the Gate to revive his brother and finding himself in this strange world, he'd devoted himself to finding a way back. He had to see for himself that he'd succeeded in restoring Al. But as of yet, he still had not discovered a way to do so. There was no such thing as alchemy in this world. And no matter how much he studied he couldn't seem to unlock the secrets of this world's technology. Rockets and airplanes, zeppelins and jets. None of them brought him any closer to going home. There were times when he truly began to wonder if he would ever see Amestris, his brother, Winry, Pinako, Izumi, the Central gang, or even that bastard colonel ever again.

Finally finished, Ed shrugged his long brown coat on and went into the kitchen of the small apartment he lived. The flat was unusually quiet.

"Alphonse?" Ed called. "Alphonse, you here?"

There was no answer from anywhere in the apartment. Glancing at the table, Ed saw a note. Picking it up, he read:

_Edward, I had to go to the factory early today. Our patrons wants us to move the rocket's intended completion date up several weeks. I don't know if I'll be back tonight. Signed, Alphonse._

Ed sighed and set the note back down. He didn't know how he felt about his brother's alternate double, Alphonse Heiderich, and his team of engineers working for this group of secret benefactors. There was something suspicious about them. Over the last few months he'd begun to hear odd things around the city. There was whispered talk of revolution and of a man that could restore Germany to its former glory - a chairman of the Nazi Socialist Party named Adolph Hitler. It was said he would once again make the world recognize the superiority of the Aryan race.

Ed might not have cared much about politics or the problems of this world since it was not his own, but he could tell something was brewing. Something _big_. And for some reason he had a feeling Alphonse's mysterious benefactors were somehow connected to this chairman and his gang of swastika wearing paratroopers. He didn't like it. Everything about it gave him a bad feeling…

Shaking his head to rid himself of his paranoid unease, the teen turned towards the door. He had research to do. He'd heard rumors recently of a new study being done by a theoretical physics professor in Berlin - an Albert Einstein - on Brownian movement, or the zigzag motion of molecules. If he could somehow unlock the secrets of this Brownian movement and learn the ways a human body's atoms could be manipulated or changed, he might be one step closer to someday finding a way home. He knew it was a long shot, but at the moment he was starting to get desperate and willing to try anything. He didn't care how he got back home - only that he did. He wanted to see his little brother and everybody else again so badly he would do almost anything.

Making his way downstairs, Ed gave his landlady, Gracia, a quick wave as he headed for the door.

"Edward," she called, arranging a pot of daffodils near the counter. "Where's your umbrella? It's pouring outside."

Ed had to smile. No matter how different the Alphonse of this world might be to his own, Gracia Hughes' flower shop keeping double was exactly the same - a worrying mother type through and through. Neither him or Alphonse could ever seem to make it out of the boarding house without Gracia making sure they had hat, muffler, coat, or umbrella depending on the season or weather. It almost reminded him of having his own mother around.

"I'll be fine, Gracia. My coat has a hood." He quickly pulled it up over his head. "See? I'm just going to the library for awhile."

"But, Edward, I have an umbrella right here behind the counter. Just wait there a moment while I get it-"

"That's alright, Gracia, I'll see you later!" With one last wave Ed escaped out the door before the motherly shopkeeper could stop him.

Outside the streets were empty. The only other people he saw were those waiting out the deluge in shops or cafes, and the occasional car that rumbled past in the street. Rain pattered softly on the top of Ed's head, dripping off the brim of his hood into his eyes. He made no move to wipe the water away. The rain was strangely calming. It helped him his forget his troubles and the ever present ache in his heart for the ones he'd left behind.

As Ed continued down the sidewalk with his head bowed to the rain, he happened to catch the sound of a car coming up the street behind him. It sounded like it was moving fast. Veering to the side to avoid the inevitable spray of water as the car passed, Ed walked closer to the buildings.

But the car never went past him. Instead, Ed heard the car slow down and match his speed, pacing him from several yards behind.

Uneasiness swelled inside him. Wariness tickled the back of his neck. He'd been in enough dangerous situations over the years to know when something wasn't right.

Continuing to walk like he hadn't noticed he was being followed, Ed surreptitiously glanced back over his shoulder towards the suspicious car. It was black without any distinguishing marks. Its windows were partially fogged from the chilly rain, making it difficult to see how many people were inside, but Ed had a sinking feeling there were more than one.

Ed's unease grew. Who were these people? Why were they following him? What could he have done to attract these people's attention?

He continued to walk with his head bent low. He could try and lose them, he thought. There was a plethora of side streets he could disappear down that were too narrow for the car to follow. He would just have to time it so he could get away before whoever was following him had time to get out of the car and chase him.

Before Ed could make his move, though, he heard the car suddenly stop and several doors open.

_Shit._

"Hey kid!" a voice yelled over the hiss of rain. "You Edward Elric?"

"Who wants to know?" Ed replied, turning to face the car. There were three men, all of them dressed in dark clothes. Through the curtains of misty rain he saw pins attached to each of their lapels - black swastikas in the middle of white, red rimmed circles.

_Nazis._

"It's none of your business who we are," one of the other men said, stepping closer. "We'll only ask you one more time: are you Edward Elric?"

"So what if I am?" Ed replied, warily eyeing the three men. "It's kind of rude not to introduce yourself when you're asking someone else for their name."

"We need you to come with us," the first man said.

"Sorry. I don't make a habit out of going places with people I don't know."

The third man stepped closer, as did his companions. "Please come with us," he said, his tone implying he was doing everything _but_ nicely asking Ed to come with them. "This concerns Shambala."

Ed stared at the man, his eyes narrowing. "Sorry. Don't know the thing. I have to get going." Turning, Ed began to walk away. The first man's voice called after him.

"We have your father, Hohenheim. We know where you're really from."

Ed froze, his heart thundering madly against the inside of his chest. His father? He hadn't seen his father since before his trip to Romania. When he'd returned to Munich he'd found their apartment empty and his father gone. It was like Hohenheim of the Light had simply vanished. At first Ed had been resentful - unable to shake the feeling he'd once again been abandoned by the man who'd caused his mother and family so much grief. But now… now he had to wonder if Hohenheim's disappearance was really the old man's doing or someone else's.

And what was this about them knowing where he was really from? Did they somehow know about Amestris?

Whatever the case, something deep inside Ed was telling him not to go with these men; even if it meant finding out what happened to his estranged father.

"Don't know the guy…" Ed muttered, willing his feet to start moving again. "Good luck with whatever this Shambala thing is though."

"I'm sorry but we're going to have to insist you come with us," one man said.

"You have no choice in the matter," said another.

Ed glanced over his shoulder again back towards the men and idling car. His eyes narrowed. "Like hell I don't…" Kicking off the ground, Ed took off running.

He heard the men take up pursuit behind him.

His footsteps echoed loudly through the rain drenched streets, as did those of his pursuers. He could hear them slowly gaining on him - getting ever closer. His makeshift prosthetics were not as good as Winry's. His artificial leg did not move or respond to his muscle signals as efficiently as his old one's had, which slowed him down. The straps and attachment harness of the limb also jarred his leg stump painfully. He knew he wasn't going to be able to outrun his pursuers. They were too fast and he was not a runner. The last three years spent researching a way back home and not training hadn't done anything for his stamina. He was going to have to lose them some other way.

Ducking into a narrow alley, Ed put on a new burst of speed. His pursuers followed after him. The other end of the alley was about a hundred yards away. He knew if he could make it to the other side, just down the street to the left was a small constables station. At this time of day Maes Hughes' alternate double - a local policeman - was almost certain to be on duty.

Ed's breath was starting to come in short, labored gasps. If he ever made it back home one of the first things he was going to do was have Izumi whip him back into shape. He didn't even care if she stranded him on that stupid little island of hers again. This was just pathetic.

He could hear his pursuers getting closer. They were probably only half a dozen feet behind him now.

The other end of the alley was still a good fifty yards away.

Forcing more effort into his stinging leg muscles and artificial limb, he grabbed the rim of an empty garbage can as he passed and pushed it over into the middle of the alleyway. He heard one of the Nazis stumble and fall over.

Smirking, Ed put on an extra burst of speed. He was almost there. He was now only twenty some yards away.

But just as he began to think he was going to be able to escape his pursuers, Ed suddenly felt one of the men grab the back of his coat and pull him backwards. He stumbled and fell to the ground.

Before he could do anything to recover or defend himself, two sets of hands grabbed him and slammed him up against the wall. Ed struggled against his captors.

"Let me go, you bastards!" he yelled, kicking and swinging his fists. It was times like this when he really missed being able to use alchemy or being able to transmute his arm into a metal blade.

A sharp punch to his abdomen stilled the teen's struggles. Ed doubled over against the wall, coughing and gasping for air. Spots danced across his vision.

"Damn brat," one of the men holding him hissed.

The third man that had tripped over the trashcan came up behind the other two holding Ed. "Make sure it's him," he said, angrily adjusting his dirtied clothes as he glared at the boy. "We don't want any mistakes with identity."

One of the men holding Ed grabbed the bottom of the boy's jaw and shoved his head back against the wall. Ed angrily glared at the man and began struggling again. The second man delivered another punch to his stomach. Ed crumpled against the wall, his body slackening as he gasped for breath.

The man holding his jaw roughly pushed Ed's hood back and peeled open one of his eyes. "Blond hair, gold eyes…" he noted to the third man standing behind him. Grabbing the collar of Ed's shirt, he ripped it to the side to expose the boy's right shoulder and the edge of his prosthetic arm. The second man reached down and lifted the bottom of Ed's left pant leg, exposing the smooth white plastic underneath. "And artificial right arm and left leg… It's just like the psychic girl said. It's Edward Elric alright."

The third man nodded and reached into the inside pocket of his jacket, withdrawing a small bottle and handkerchief. Unscrewing the top, he poured a small amount of liquid into the middle of the handkerchief. Stepping closer, he pressed the cloth over Ed's mouth and nose. A strong, pungent odor filled Ed's nose.

Ed frantically began to struggle, but the two men holding him only tightened their grip, stilling his movements. Ed tried to hold him breath against the noxious fumes trying to invade his airways, but before long the need for air became too much and he was forced to take another lungful of the chemical laced air.

His body almost instantly grew heavy and weak. His vision became blurry. His eyelids suddenly felt as if they both weighed a thousand pounds.

And just before everything went black, the last thing Edward saw was the shiny lapel pin of one of his attackers - a red rimmed circle with the bent cross of a Nazi swastika.

* * *

Outside the storm was beginning to lessen although rain continued to angrily lash against the windows. The halls of the medical center were quiet. To anyone observing it would have almost appeared as if the place was deserted except for the two people sitting on a bench together outside one of the hospital's private rooms.

Lieutenant Jean Havoc glanced at the boy sitting beside him with his head silently held between his hands. He anxiously chewed the end of his unlit cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. He was starting to get worried. Since the night before - the night the Elric brothers' alchemy teacher completed the final stage of her Homunculus student's transformation - Al hadn't spoke or made any kind of move to follow anyone else's suggestion to go rest. He just continued to sit there, holding his head in his hands. Havoc was beginning to wonder if the boy wasn't suffering some kind of mental breakdown. He couldn't say he blamed him if he was.

What happened yesterday still felt like some kind of horrible nightmare. When they'd stormed into the abandoned laboratory to save Al and seen what that crazed ex-State Alchemist had transmuted, he'd almost thrown up. That thing… that _monster_ Tucker created hadn't been human. He now knew why alchemists were forbidden to perform human transmutations. The thought of that creature laying in the middle of a bloody alchemy array still sent a cold shiver down his spine.

He was surprised the colonel hadn't followed through with his threat to kill it. He understood why Mustang hadn't been able to do it, though. From Ed's earliest days in the military he'd always known the colonel had a soft spot for the kid and secretly looked after him. Havoc had seen the anguished torment in the colonel's eye when Mustang stood over the twisted parody of Edward Elric in Laboratory Five. And he had seen the storm of emotions on the colonel's face when he'd emerged from the Homunculus' room the night before. Havoc was pretty sure that was the first time he'd ever seen his commanding officer so close to tears.

Glancing at the boy beside him, Havoc felt an overwhelming sense of pity wash over him. Poor Al… He kept forgetting how painful the entire ordeal must have been for him: getting all his memories back and then someone trying to resurrect his dead brother. Alone either would have been a traumatic enough experience, but together… it was enough to make anyone go mad. He only wished he could do something for the boy. It just didn't seem fair. He'd always liked the younger Elric brother although it was kind of strange to be sitting next to him like this when he still remembered Al as a hulking suit of armor.

He kind of wished the colonel had stayed longer. Mustang had always had a way with the Elrics. If anyone was suited to watch over Al right now it was him. But because of Tucker's arrest Mustang and the rest of the team had had to return to Central Headquarters to make reports and fill out paperwork. The Elric brothers' teacher had also gone with them to make a formal statement. Havoc knew it was going to take some fancy maneuvering on the colonel's part to cover up what really happened last night in Laboratory Five.

Havoc had been the only one to stay behind. Mustang had been wary to leave the Homunculus unguarded until they decided what they were going to do with it. The colonel had also wanted someone else to stay behind and watch Al. As of yet the boy hadn't made any move. It was like he'd withdrawn inside himself to escape the horror of what had happened and just... shut down.

"Al? Hey," Havoc called, gently shaking the boy's shoulder. The boy slowly raised his head and looked at the lieutenant with bleary, bloodshot eyes. Pity went through Havoc at the sight. "You're probably getting hungry. I'm going to go downstairs to the cafeteria to get something. What would you like?"

Al blankly stared at him a moment before sullenly looking back down at the floor. "Nothing. I'm not hungry."

Havoc frowned but tried to keep his tone light. He wasn't sure if he was actually trying to cheer Al up or keep himself from acknowledging the awful situation they both found themselves in. "Aw, come on, kid. I know you've got to be starving. You didn't eat anything last night either. I'll go get you something. And maybe some coffee too. It looks like you could use some."

Al didn't reply and continued to sit hunched over in his seat, staring at the floor.

_At least I got him to talk_ , Havoc dolefully thought.

"I'll be back soon," he said and gave Al's shoulder a comforting pat.

Al said nothing as the lieutenant walked off. As Havoc disappeared about a turn, the boy slowly raised his head and stared in the direction the lieutenant had gone. The hallway was now completely empty except for himself. No one else was in sight. Rain pattered softly against the windows, drumming a mournful beat.

Al stared at the door of the hospital room. Besides Izumi and the colonel, no one else had gone inside. He still hadn't seen the finished product of Tucker's transmutation. It was too painful to think that that monster Tucker made now bore the unmistakable resemblance of the boy they'd lost so many years ago.

Al's stomach twisted. He could still see in his mind's eye that twisted creature staring back at him with his brother's eyes - those hauntingly familiar gold eyes. He remembered how he used to love his brother's eyes; how they used to stare into the distance with such fiery intensity. They had always used to remind him of liquid gold. He supposed they were what triggered the sudden return of all his memories. Because after seeing them how could anyone ever forget those eyes or the one they used to belong to?

If only they were the eyes of his actual brother… How badly he wished they were. Somehow the return of his memories made the existence of this Homunculus Ed all the more painful to bear. Because he now actually remembered his older brother - the real Edward Elric. He didn't need any stories or pictures to remind him who his older brother was. He remembered clearly now how his brother used to look, used to sound, used to hold his head up high even if it was only to make himself look a few centimeters taller. He remembered his brother's angry tantrums, his never ending fights with the colonel, the look of fear in his eyes whenever the name of their childhood alchemy teacher came up. He remembered everything. And because of that, the hollow ache in his heart swelled bigger every time he thought about the soulless being laying on the other side of that door. It was just too much…

Choking back the anguished sob that threatened to tear itself from his throat, Al shakily stood. He had to see the Homunculus. He had to see for himself if it really looked like his missing brother. He had seen the colonel's face when he'd emerged from the Homunculus' room the night before - the confusion, and anguish and pain. He knew it was going to be painful to go in there and see his brother laying there but know it really wasn't him. He knew it was going to hurt. He knew it was going to tear his already bleeding heart to pieces. But he had to see his brother's soulless look alike for himself.

With one last steadying breath, Al opened the door and slipped inside.

* * *

He wasn't sure what woke him. As the veil of unconsciousness began to lift, Edward Elric weakly forced his eyes to open. He groaned as a flood of sensations washed over him. His entire body hurt. It felt like someone had run it through a meat grinder then roughly molded it back into shape. There wasn't an inch of flesh that didn't hurt. His muscles felt like they'd been brutally stretched and torn. Even his bones ached. Pain seemed to seep into the very core of his being. He was sure he'd never felt so sore in his entire life.

As he groggily looked around he saw that he was in a small, faintly lit room. A single lamp glowed on the bed stand, creating a small arch of light around it. He didn't know where he was, but it looked like he was in some kind of hospital. The sheet draped over his hurting body smelled of antiseptic and bleach.

Why would he be in the hospital, he wondered. When did he get hurt? Was he in some kind of accident?

For some reason he couldn't remember. His head felt like it was full of black, cottony fuzz. He felt like he should know what was going on, but for the life in him couldn't. Nothing made sense. It hurt so much to focus or to try and organize his scattered thoughts.

Blinking bleary eyes into focus, Ed slowly looked around the room. His eyelids felt so heavy. He felt like he could sleep for a year and a day and still be tired. What happened? He was so exhausted. And his body… He could barely move without sending blinding waves of pain through his torn and shredded muscles.

Fighting back exhaustion and pain it took Ed a moment to realize there was someone else in the room with him standing several yards away in the shadows near the door. He had to blink several times before he was finally able to make out who it was.

"Al..?" he shakily whispered. His voice sounded so weak even to his own ears. His throat was so dry it felt like it was on fire. The pain barely registered in his mind, though. The sight of his visitor stole all other thoughts from him.

The figure stiffened before slowly, hesitantly, stepping closer to the light.

Ed could only stare in disbelief. Standing before him was a boy no older than thirteen years old - his eyes a pale grey color with long blond hair. He looked so familiar. Like someone he used to know - someone who looked so much like himself before he'd disappeared in a vortex of swirling white transmutation light.

"Al?" Ed rasped, as if afraid to find out the one he thought he saw before him was nothing but a feverish hallucination. "Al, is that really you?" Hope trembled his raspy voice.

Could it be? Could it really be him?

The boy said nothing and stared at him with tear filled eyes. If Ed hadn't been so dumbstruck by the sight of his little brother he might have noticed the look of utter heartbreak twisting his younger sibling's face.

"Al… your body… You got your body back," Ed whispered, staring at his brother in disbelief. "You're not a suit of armor anymore."

He couldn't believe it. Al was whole again. He'd gotten his body back! But how? Had they somehow finally found the Philosopher's Stone? But then why didn't he remember? These and so many others questions churned Ed's mind, but he could barely made himself care how this miraculous event had come to be, only that it had.

He weakly reached out for his brother, wanting nothing more than to pull his brother close and know for a fact he was no longer an empty suit of metal, but rather living human flesh and blood. He wanted to hold his little brother in his arms and feel the warmth of his skin and know he was truly and honestly alive.

But instead of rushing into his waiting arms like he expected him to Al stepped backwards, shying away from his touch as if afraid he might get burned.

Ed stared at his brother his confusion. "Al?" He could hear the hurt in his own voice. "What's wrong?"

Al still said nothing, staring at him in utter anguish. Tears began to pool along the bottom of his eyes, threatening to spill at any minute.

"Al?" Ed was starting to get scared. What was wrong? Why wouldn't his little brother come to him? Why was he acting like he was afraid of him?

He once again reached out to Al, forcing his aching muscles to move. He so desperately wanted to hold his little brother close. He was in so much pain. All he wanted was to hug his brother and know that he was once again whole. But why wouldn't he come to him?

Al again shied away, moving back so that he stood on the edge of the lamplight, half-veiled in shadows. Ed stared after him in hurt confusion.

"What-?"

"Shut up!"

The boy's teary cry rang through the room like a gunshot. His lower lip trembled, as if he were fighting to keep himself composed but failing miserably. Several tears streaked down his cheek.

"Shut up! Stop talking! You're not my brother!"

Ed stared at him from the confines of his bed as if Al had just slapped him across the face. "Al… What are you talking about? Of course I'm your brother."

"No you're not!" Al screamed, shaking his head as if trying to deny some horrible truth only he knew. "You're not my brother! You're not him! You're just something Tucker made to replace him!"

"What are you talking about?"

Al stared at him, tears streaming down his cheeks. "My real brother's dead. He died giving himself to the Gate to restore me three years ago. Tucker wanted to revive Brother through human transmutation and created you instead. We tried to stop him but he started the transmutation before we could." An anguished sob tore itself from Al's throat. "You're not my brother…"

Ed stared at Al, unable to comprehend why his brother would try and play such a cruel joke on him. "How can you say that, Al?" he said, his eyes pleading with Al to stop saying these hurtful things. "Look at me. It's me, Ed - your brother. We've been together since the day you were born. I remember how we always used to play with each other-"

"Shut up!"

"-I remember how Winry always used to yell at us whenever we talked alchemy around her -"

"Stop it!"

"-and I remember how we tried to resurrect mom."

" _Shut up!_ " Al screamed, his hands clenching into fists. Helpless tears of anger streamed down his face. They flashed brightly in the lamplight. "Those aren't your memories! They're just memories Tucker implanted in you when he took my blood and added it to the composition elements! You're not my brother!"

"Stop saying that!" Ed cried, desperately trying to make his brother listen. Why was Al doing this to him? "Why won't you believe me that I'm your brother?"

"Because I can see that thing on your arm!" Al cried, and pointed accusingly at Ed's right shoulder. "If you really have my brother's memories then you'll know what that is."

Ed turned his face to the side and for the first time since waking realized he no longer had an automail arm but rather his natural flesh one. For a moment, Ed just stared at it, not quite sure what to make of its unexplainable presence. Wiggling his toes, he also realized he had his real left leg. What was going on? The last time he remembered he had two metal limbs - his original two lost in the horrible transmutation they'd tried to bring their mother back with. This wasn't right.

Slowly raising his arm - his torn arm muscles screaming in protest - he stared at the limb. Almost experimentally he flexed his fingers and marveled at how the flesh digits responded to his muscle commands. But as he turned his arm over to continue his awe-struck examination he caught sight of something marring his upper right bicep. He turned his arm more so he could see it better. It was a tattoo. A tattoo in the image of a winged serpent devouring its own tail.

Ed froze, staring at the thing in horror. _No_. This wasn't right. This couldn't be!

He desperately looked up at Al, his eyes begging him to tell him what he saw wasn't real. But Al wasn't looking at him. He was staring at the floor, his face hidden behind a curtain of blond bangs. That did not hide the lines of anguished tears rolling down his brother's cheeks though.

He returned his attention to the hideous tattoo.

How could this be? How could this be real? This wasn't right!

Ed's airways constricted, panic squeezing his throat. No! This wasn't right! There had to be some kind of mistake! There was no way this could be true! There was no way he could be one of those soulless things - one of those Homunculi!

Tears stung Ed's eyes. No. This wasn't right. He remembered! He remembered things only the real Edward Elric could! He remembered him and Al trying to resurrect their mother then losing their bodies to the Laws of Equivalent Exchange. He remembered them burning down their house after he'd become a State Alchemist. He remembered them searching for the Philosopher's Stone. He remembered… Roy Mustang standing over him in a darkened room with his hand held out over him as if ready to ignite the deadly spark that gave him the title Flame Alchemist.

_NO!_ That wasn't right! Why would he remember the colonel doing that? Mustang might have been an arrogant pain in the ass but he remembered him always looking out for him.

Tears leaked out the corners of Edward's eyes as he stared at the ceiling above his bed. He was so confused. Why would the colonel have been trying to kill him? He'd always tried to protect him. He would never try to harm him. But then why did he remember Mustang standing over him like that?

"Al…" Ed begged, turning his head to the side to look at the boy standing at a distance from his bed. Confusion, hurt, and fear thickened his trembling voice. "Please… please tell me I'm the real Edward Elric. Please tell me this is all just some kind of joke. Please tell me I'm your older brother…"

But Al refused to answer. Al stared at Ed with such heart-wrenching anguish Ed felt as if he were somehow blaming him with his tear-filled eyes. Al shook his head, hiding his face from view behind a curtain of dark blond hair. Then, as if unable to stand the sight of Ed laying there anymore, Al abruptly turned and fled the room. His long red coat snapped behind him in the air. He didn't even paused to look back before he disappeared out the door.

Ed stared after him, devastation washing over him. The room suddenly felt cold like an empty grave. Loneliness the likes of which he'd never felt before exploded in his chest. Not even losing their mother had hurt this much.

No… this wasn't right. This wasn't right! This was impossible! There was no way this could be true!

But looking at the serpent brand on his bicep, Edward knew that what he saw was not a lie or a joke. What he saw was real.

Unable to deny the horrible truth anymore, Ed buried his face into the thin hospital pillow. With no one else there to comfort him or hear his helpless cries, the soulless boy screamed his anguish into the empty silence of the room.

* * *

Consciousness returned slowly to Edward Elric. His head felt like it was wreathed in some kind of dense fog that refused to fully lift. His stomach ached painfully. Groaning, Ed forced his eyes open. The world swayed as he held his bruised stomach and gingerly pushed himself to his knees.

_Where am I?_ he wondered as he looked around his new surroundings. It looked like he was in some kind of castle or old cathedral. He was sitting at the base of what looked like a huge continuous rampway that spiraled up around him, creating a sort of gothic interior tower. A domed ceiling stretched overhead at least five stories above the ground. Torches glowed around the perimeter of the circular area of floor in which he sat.

"What the hell…" Ed muttered. As far as he could tell, no one else was there. The men who'd attacked him earlier were no where to be seen. Wincing, he began to push himself to his feet. But as he pushed against the floor to give himself the extra momentum he needed to stand, the teenager froze.

Beneath him, crisscrossing back and forth across the ground was an elaborate series of lines. They surrounded him, creating a huge pattern at least forty feet across.

It was a giant alchemy array.

For a moment, all Ed could do was stare, stunned by the sight of the painfully nostalgic symbol. It was an alchemy array the likes of which he'd never seen before. The points, division lines, and intricate pattern… it was something so complex Ed never would have imagined it even in his wildest dreams.

"Surprised, shorty?" a loud, throaty voice boomed out of nowhere.

Ed leapt to his feet. "Who's there?"

A nasty chuckle rumbled the air. "What's the matter, squirt? Don't remember me? I'm hurt."

Pinpointing the source of the voice, Ed looked up - and froze.

Encircling the interior circumference of the tower several stories above the ground was a giant serpent-like creature. Its draconian body was held in place by a series of metal chains and brackets attached to the walls. Blood red eyes stared down at Ed as the creature squirmed and twisted, straining against the metal links holding it captive.

"Envy?" Ed gasped, staring at the monstrous form in disbelief. He recognized that sly, mocking voice no matter what form the Homunculus shape shifter took. "What are you doing here?"

An angry hiss escaped the giant serpent's mouth. "I followed you here to find that bastard, Hohenheim, and kill him," Envy growled, ferociously snapping his fangs. "But he's proven harder to find than expected. And since this world doesn't seem to follow the same rules as ours, I can't transform back into my normal self."

Ed snorted. "I don't know if that's actually a good thing or bad thing. You always were such an ugly bastard."

Envy hissed and snapped his teeth at the teen. "Shut up, pip squeak! You're only second on my death list after Hohenheim. Don't think I don't plan of biting you in half the second I get free."

Ed was about to open his mouth and shoot back another retort, but just then he heard footsteps and turned to see a small group of people emerge from the shadows of the room and come to stand on the edge of the giant alchemy array.

"Ah… I see you're already acquainted with our Giant Snake. This might make things easier for us," said a tall blonde woman. She was apparently the leader of the group by the way the rest gathered around her. Like the men that had kidnapped him, a Nazi swastika was pinned to her collar. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Dietlinde Eckart, head of the Thule Society."

Behind the woman stood a tall professor-type looking man flanked by several swastika-wearing men with guns. Beside him, hiding in the shadow of the woman leader was a dark-skinned girl no older than Ed himself. She had an exotic look to her, as if she wasn't from that part of the country. If Ed wasn't mistaken, she looked like the alternate double of Roze Thomas from his world. The girl had a distant look in her eyes and seemed reluctant to look in Ed's direction, as if she was somehow guilty for him being there. And behind her-

Ed's heart clenched in his chest.

-behind the dark-skinned girl was none other than his own father, Hohenheim of the Light, held on either side by two Nazi guards. His hands were bound in front of him and he looked as if he had suffered a recent blow to the face. His left temple was a painful patch of discolored purple skin.

"Old man!" Ed exclaimed.

Looking up, Hohenheim stared at his son with some thing akin to dismayed heartache. "Edward… so they found you after all."

" _You!_ " Envy roared and began thrashing against his restraints, biting and snapping the air in the direction of the blonde man. "I'll kill you!"

Eckart gave a throaty chuckle as she watched Envy writhe and growl. "He's feisty today… That's good. Maybe he'll finally be willing to cooperate."

"Who are you people and what do you want with me?" Ed demanded, angrily glaring at the woman.

The woman gave him a taunting smile. "As I already mentioned we are the Thule Society. We are a group of people who believe in the potential of human beings someday superceding our current limitations of existence and tapping into the very powers of the universe. Some people may call us mystics or the occult, but I like to think of ourselves as visionaries. We are the ones that will one day open the doors to the human being's true potential.'

"Not long ago, our dear Karl Haushofer here-" she gestured to the academic-looking man beside her "-happened to meet your father Hohenheim at a Thule Society meeting, and learned of a fantastic world parallel to ours in which people can change the very structure of an object and turn it into whatever they want through a mysterious art called alchemy. Needless to say, we were eager to learn more of this alchemy and this fabled world 'Shambala.''

"Unfortunately, it seems your father was unwilling to reveal to us his secrets or how we might reach Shambala. Even after we were forced to take him into our… hospitality he still refused to tell us anything. It was only after we acquired this psychic gypsy girl that we were finally able to learn the basics of how alchemy works. But even after capturing the Giant Snake we still cannot seem to open a gateway to Shambala."

The woman stared at Edward, a triumphant grin twisting her lips - like that of a predator eyeing its cornered prey. "We know you are from Shambala and that you are Hohenheim's son. The gypsy girl told us about you and how we might find you. Since your father is so unwilling to help us, you will have to do. We want you to open a gateway to Shambala."

"If I could, I already would have a long time ago," Edward snorted, contemptuously staring at the blonde woman. "Alchemy doesn't work in this world in case the old man over there didn't tell you. Besides, even if I could open a gate to my world, it would probably cost me my life. Equivalent Trade. That's one of the first rules of Alchemy. You have to give something in order to get something in return. What you want me to do is impossible. But even if it wasn't, I still wouldn't do it for a bunch of goose-stepping freaks like you."

"I don't believe you," Eckart sneered. "You're lying. You're just like you're father: difficult and stubborn."

"So I've been told…" Ed jeered mockingly.

"I see we're just going to have to make you see things our way," Eckart said, motioning to her team of soldiers. "I doubt a little boy like you will last very long."

Ed's nostrils flared, his eyes flashing dangerously. "Why don't you come over here and call me a tiny shrimp who can't defend himself in a fight!"

Eckart chuckled darkly under her breath. "Stubborn, but lively… I like that." She glanced at one of her soldiers. "Don't hold back. Just make sure you don't kill him."

The soldier curtly nodded, then stepped towards Ed. Two other soldiers followed.

Ed dropped into a fighting stance, warily eyeing the three guards. One soldier lunged at him. Dropping low, Ed delivered a punch to the man's abdomen. Gasping for air, the man crumpled to the ground holding his stomach.

Ed grinned. He might have lost some of his stamina over the years but he'd forgotten none of his old alchemy teacher's training. A punch from Izumi was something one didn't easily forgot, or how one went about avoiding one of those aforementioned punches.

A second guard came at him. Ed leapt back and ducked to avoid the man's fist which came flying at his head. Grabbing the soldier's overextended arm, Ed pivoted and flipped the man over his shoulder using the guard's own momentum. The soldier hit the ground and lay gasping for his air on his back.

A smirk twisted Ed's face. This was it? This was all the all-powerful, Nazi-backed Thule Society had to offer? This was pathetic.

But just then a gunshot rang out, shattering the boy's cocky thoughts.

Ed crumpled to the ground.

Pushing himself to his elbow's Ed looked up to find the third guard standing several yards away with a smoking pistol in his hand. As Ed tried to get back to his feet, he was startled to find his left leg suddenly refusing to respond to his muscle signals or bear his weight. Looking down, he saw that the soldier's bullet had torn a path through his artificial leg's kneecap - completely immobilizing it.

Ed stared at the armed man with a cold wash of horror. He could no longer stand or fight. He was helpless.

The soldier's gun was trained on him, its barrel staring down at him like some kind of evil black eye.

"Are you willing to work with us now?" Eckart's voice rang from the edge of the array. "As you can see, the Thule Society is not one to waste time on foolish little martial art fights. We mean business."

Ed glared at her with defiant gold eyes. "Screw you."

Eckart's lips twisted into a scowl. "Such foul language for such a little boy. Kohler," she called to the guard standing over Ed. "Shoot him in one of his real limbs. Maybe that will help him see the light. And if that doesn't work, shoot him in another until he finally does. Just don't make any of them too serious. We don't want him bleed out and die."

Ed stoically glared at the man as the soldier stepped closer and took aim at his other leg. He wasn't going to look away. He wasn't going to give these people the pleasure of seeing him scream or cringe under their torture. He didn't care how many times Eckart's men shot him. He wasn't going to give in.

Just as the soldier was about to press the trigger, a loud shout followed by the startled cries of two Nazi soldiers sounded from the edge of the array.

Wrenching his arms out of his guards' grip, Hohenheim swung his bound hands at one of the soldiers' faces. It connected with a sickening crunch and gush of blood. The guard fell to his knees, holding his shattered nose. Before the second guard had any time to react, Hohenheim delivered a similar blow to him, knocking him backwards to the ground. Brutally shouldering his way past Haushofer, Eckart, and the frightened gypsy girl, Hohenheim ran towards the middle of the alchemy array where Ed lay with his shattered left leg. Like an angry battering ram Hohenheim plowed into the last guard, knocking him to the ground. The man's gun fell out of his grip and slid across the polished floor out of sight.

"Someone, stop him!" Eckart yelled from the edge of the array.

Above them Envy thrashed in his restraints, biting and snapping in Hohenheim's direction. "I'll kill you, you bastard!" he yelled, straining against the chains holding him captive.

Ed stared at his father in bewildered surprise as the older man knelt beside him. "Old man, what are you-?"

"There's no time, Edward," Hohenheim said, cutting him off. "You have to go home. I know you think you can't do alchemy in this world, but you can. The Nazis have found a way to bypass the natural limitations of this world. With this array you can get back."

"But what about the Equivalent Trade?" Ed said, somewhat frightened by the intensity of his father's voice. "I'll be killed. What will I give in exchange?"

"Give me," Hohenheim said, meeting his son's frightened gaze. "I have caused you so much pain and suffering over the years giving you a chance to go back home is the least I can do."

Envy's thrashes were becoming more violent. He viciously roared and snapped the air, driven beyond the point of coherent thought in his thirst to kill the man he'd searched for and hated for so long. The rivets of the metal bands holding him began to groan under his struggles. Several popped out of the walls and rained down on the two in the middle of the alchemy array below.

Ed stared at his father in horror. "No! I can't do that! I won't!"

"Edward," Hohenheim calmly reasoned. "This is your only chance to go home. I should have died lifetimes ago. My time is over while you have only begun to live. You do not belong in this world. You have to go back. Alphonse needs you. I know how hard you've spent these last few years trying to find a way back. But the only way to do that is to sacrifice me. Please. Let me do this for you. Let me do this last thing for you as your father who didn't deserve you as a son."

A thunderous roar from Envy sounded overhead. Chunks of rocks and twisted metal rained down onto the array. Several of the metal bands holding the shape shifting Homunculus captive snapped, ripped from the walls as if they were mere pieces of tin foil.

Ed stared at his father with watery eyes. He felt his throat constrict with long repressed emotions. "Old man…" he choked, struggling to keep his voice from breaking. " _Dad_ … please don't make me do this."

"You have to, Edward," Hohenheim said, cupping his son's face in between his hands. "You have to look after Alphonse. When you see him, tell him I'm sorry. Tell him I'm sorry I was never able to be there for you." He stared into his son's eyes, tears brimming along the edge of his own. "I'm so sorry, Edward…" he whispered. "For everything… Please forgive me."

Envy was now completely free. His serpentine body lashed the air, pulling the last few rivets from of the walls.

"Dad…" Ed begged, pleading with the man not to make him do this.

Hohenheim refused to listen. Releasing his son's face, he leaned back on his heels and met Ed's teary eyes. "There's no more time, Edward. You have to do it. Now!"

Above them, Envy roared and descended upon them like some demonic god of death. His fangs gnashed the air, thirsting for blood.

"Now, Edward! Do it!" Hohenheim cried.

With tears in his eyes Ed looked at his father one last time. Hohenheim's face was peaceful as he stared at his son, a bittersweet smile tugging his lips. It was like he'd finally found meaning in his last few moments of life. A tiny sob escaped Ed's throat as he clapped his hands together and miserably slammed them against the enormous alchemy array beneath them.

Brilliant white light exploded up from the painted black lines and engulfed them. The very air around they surged with power. And then - hundreds of tiny black arms reaching out to grab him - Ed felt himself pulled away into the very fabric of time and space. Back home to Amestris.

To Be Continued

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


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